


Proof

by cmk418



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-24
Updated: 2010-07-24
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:54:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,043
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28042731
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cmk418/pseuds/cmk418
Summary: There are ways to prove that someone is corporeal.
Relationships: Faith Lehane/Tara Maclay
Kudos: 3





	Proof

_Eleven… twelve._ Tara counts as the church bells down the street peal off another hour. She’s sitting vigil, waiting for the girls to return from their patrol. 

She looks up at the sky, glad she can’t see the stars here, glad that she hasn’t been able to see the stars since the spring before the First started wreaking havoc around town.

But maybe the First has always wreaked havoc around the Hellmouth. So possibly, the absence of light in the night sky is just another way of making its presence felt.

Tara wonders if it has the power to block the sun as well, to bring this town into eternal night, to-

Her musings are interrupted by the brief clasp of fingers on her shoulder as Faith stalks past her into the yard.

“Faith?” Tara moves to where the other girl stands, attempting to light a cigarette. Faith’s fingers are shaking so bad, she can barely work the lighter.

“Here. Let me.” Tara takes the lighter from Faith and lights the cigarette.

Faith takes a deep inhalation of smoke and nicotine and slowly exhales. “Thanks.”

“Do you… do you have another one?”

Faith looks at her, surprised. “You smoke?”

“Occasionally, yes.”

“Weird.”

“Not really.”

“Come on. I’m ‘black leather ex-con girl’. I’m expected to smoke. But ‘earth mother goddess chick’? Not so much.”

“Everybody’s life has contradictions.”

“Yeah, but…”

“I drink too, sometimes. I just wanted to put that out there so I don’t offend your delicate sensibilities.”

Faith laughs. “Oh stop. Everybody drinks.”

“And, while I’m confessing things, you should know that I sleep with women.”

“You do more that that.”

“Not for a while,” Tara says quietly. Faith hands her the cigarette.

“It’s the only one. I bummed it off Spike,” she says. 

Tara takes a long drag from the cigarette and releases the smoke from her lungs slowly, without coughing. 

Faith raises an eyebrow.

Tara shrugs. “Sometimes, I bum one off Spike too.”

Faith shifts her weight from one foot to the other. She opens her mouth, closes it again, and then sighs loudly. “Not for a while,” she mumbles, following up on the earlier conversation. “House full of girls and you could have your pick if you wanted. Or are you still hung up on Red? Does it piss you off? Seeing her with somebody else?”

Tara shakes her head. “We could have made a go of it last year, but I thought we’d be better as friends. And we are.”

“Good.”

“You’d think. Although sometimes, living under the same roof, the two of them can get a bit annoying.”

“Thank you.” Faith takes what’s left of the cigarette from Tara, brushing her fingers against Tara’s hand as she does so. “Glad to know I’m not the only one that feels that way.”

Tara glances toward the house and sees one of the Potentials walk past the back door. “Is everybody back from patrol?”

“Just my group. They were cleaning up and I went to make a sandwich. Effects of slaying. And well…” She takes a long final drag on the cigarette, then stubs it out under her foot.

“Who was it?”

“Oh, I got the trifecta tonight. Started off with my first Watcher who basically told me that it didn’t matter if I died because there would always be another Slayer to take my place. She said ‘why don’t you let someone better than you fulfill her potential?’ I kept telling myself that it wasn’t real, but I couldn’t shut it off. And then it changed and it was that guy. The human I staked. He said I would accidentally cause more deaths of innocent people and it would be best if I left.”

“It wouldn’t.”

“I don’t know. I screwed a lot of things up, let a lot of people down. Sometimes, I honestly don’t know if I’ll let more people down if I stay or if I go.”

“You wouldn’t have come back if you didn’t think it would help.”

“Guess not. Funny, that’s what Richard said that about you.”

“Who’s Richard?”

“This guy. Kind of like a dad to me for a while here. Then Buffy killed him. I guess he might have deserved it, but I was laid up at the time, so I don’t know.”

“How does he know me?”

“The First knows everybody around here. He said that you were his agent. That you died and you came back and set yourself up here at base camp to help him.”

“I didn’t die. I didn’t. She keeps saying…”

“Who?”

“My mom. She says the stars foretold of my death, that I should have crossed realms long before now and all I have to do is submit to my fate.”

“Shit.”

“I see her there and I wonder if it’s her. If what my father said about her being evil was true. But then I think, no, she was protective of me. Always. So I reach out. Like you did to me.” Tara smiles shyly. “There are other ways to prove somebody is corporeal, you know.”

“Yeah, but shooting you with a crossbow might not be the best option.”

“I’m glad you decided against it.”

“Touching seems to work just fine. Little tap on the shoulder. Hey, you’re flesh and blood and all is well.”

“Kissing is better,” Tara says, stepping closer to Faith.

“Kissing? You and me kissing?” 

“Yes, and don’t start on that ex-con and earth mother goddess thing again. For the moment, I’d rather the two of us just be women.” With that, she nips playfully at Faith’s lower lip.

Faith’s arms loop around Tara’s waist, pulling her closer as Faith’s tongue traces the outline of Tara’s lips. Tara opens her mouth slightly, welcoming the taste of the other woman and the feel of Faith’s body pressed even more tightly against hers. They stay like that for several minutes, lips and tongues tangling together in a game of chase and retreat. 

“Pretty good method,” Faith says when they finally break contact.

“I know a few others.” Tara takes Faith’s hand and leads her back into the house. For the next few hours, Faith verifies Tara’s existence in a number of different ways.

Never once does a crossbow enter the picture.


End file.
